Modeling glacier melt and runoff in a high-altitude headwater catchment in the Cordillera Real, Andes

Abstract. Runoff from catchments with partial glacier cover is an integrated process of glacier melt, snowmelt, and surface and subsurface runoff of meltwater and rain from glacierized and non-glacierized areas. Additionally, inherent characteristics of the tropical Andes such as large meteorological variability, high elevation and steep slopes, hydrological effects of wetlands and lakes, and rapid glacier retreat make it difficult to model glacio-hydrological responses under changing climate. In this study, we developed a semi-distributed conceptual model applicable to partially glacierized catchments in the tropical Andes that considers all of these aspects, and we applied the model to the Huayna Potosi West headwater catchment in the Cordillera Real, Bolivia. Based on the latest 2 yr dataset of meteorological and hydrological monitoring, we showed the spatial and temporal variability of air temperature and precipitation in the region, and the dataset was used to calibrate model parameters and validate the performance of the daily runoff simulation. Variations in the simulated streamflow agreed well with the observed seasonal and temporal variations, and the result also showed that uncertainty pertaining to the spatial and temporal variations in air temperature and precipitation as well as the retarding effect of a wetland and lake strongly affected the runoff hydrograph. The simulated runoff components indicated that runoff from glacier melt occurs mainly in the initial period of the wet season, from October to early December, and in the late period of the wet season, March and April, although the runoff is relatively small in the latter period. Between these two periods in the wet season, major runoff components were estimated to be subsurface runoff in the non-glacierized area and surface runoff due to snowmelt. Given the future meteorological conditions based on the observational data and a predictive general circulation model output, the model quantified the long-term changes in runoff, glacierized area, and cumulative glacier and snow mass balance. The glacier retreat is estimated to continue to 2050, with the magnitude of area decrease and negative cumulative mass balance depending on the increasing temperature trend used. For higher temperature trends, in particular, greater seasonal variation in runoff and larger contributions from subsurface runoff and surface runoff by rainfall were simulated to occur in the wet season, but the change in annual total runoff between the present and 2050 was not significant. These results suggest that it is important to consider how to best adapt to greater seasonal runoff variations in terms of water availability in the downstream region.